


Bond Across Distance

by brilliantbanshee



Series: After the Omega Shield [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Episode: s06e01 Omega Shield, Everyone knows Lance died, Gen, He's not happy about it, Hunk (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Keith finds out Lance died that one time, Klance Lite, Lance (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Lance's death is addressed, Post-Episode: s06e01 Omega Shield, Team Voltron Family, but he has them, he's getting better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-21 22:49:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16585751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brilliantbanshee/pseuds/brilliantbanshee
Summary: While on a mission for the blades, Keith suddenly has a feeling that something is just wrong and he just can’t shake it. So once he wraps things up he decides to take a few days to drop back in on the team, just to be sure. What he finds is not something he could have ever prepared for.Or,Keith finds out Lance died and he has feelings about it, many of which are entirely unexpected.Sequel to “Friendship, Space Magic, and Other Things” (so the whole team knows in my universe).





	Bond Across Distance

**Author's Note:**

> So, listen. I realize that during this time Keith would be on a space whale with his mother and not galavanting across the galaxy but for right now, I'm ignoring that. For angst. 
> 
> Quick shoutout and thanks to CaffeinatedFlumadiddle for a little guidance/inspiration on this. 
> 
> Also if you haven't read the first part, basically Lance died on the Omega Shield, Hunk found out, had feelings, told the others, and they had feelings. There were a lot of feelings and now everyone knows (except Keith, but we'll get to that in a moment).

 “Corridor 15 all clear,” Keith whispered into his comms.

He continued heading towards the bridge of the Galra transport he was currently sneaking through with the intention of changing the coordinates of what their intel showed to be basically autopilot, ensuring that the weapons being transported upon this particular cruiser would never reach their intended destination and would conveniently end up at one of the rebel bases instead.

All Keith had to do was dodge the sentries, make sure there were no actual sentient Galra aboard the vessel, neutralize any that might appear, and change the coordinates.

In a word: simple. Routine even.

So far, it was shaping up to be exactly that. It was not a particularly _large_ shipment of weapons, so the empire had apparently deemed this particular vessel an acceptable loss should it be intercepted and had thus been lax with security. But it would make all the difference to the rebels.

Keith headed down several more corridors with the same result. This was almost boring. He almost wished he could run into a galra solider just to make this a bit more exciting.

Which is why he almost stumbled when he suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of fear overtake him. He swayed momentarily on the spot, grasping the wall for support. He looked around quickly, looking for whatever it is that had sent his adrenaline spiking.

The corridor was empty, just as all the previous ones had been.

He stayed where he was, looking around cautiously. Years on his own had taught him to trust his instincts, but this seemed different. He couldn’t explain it.

He stayed still, surveying the surrounding halls with his hand on his knife. There was no movement at all. He was stationary long enough that Kolivan grew concerned enough to check in, “Keith, status update.”

“All clear,” he responded after doing one last visual sweep, “something felt off, but I don’t see anything. Continuing towards the bridge now.”

“Affirmative, proceed with caution.”

The rest of the mission passed without incident. There was not a single galra soldier on the entire ship and the coordinates were easy enough to input. Simple, easy.

Before he knew it Keith was back in his pod, heading back to the Blade headquarters. Now that he was off mission, he took the time to think back to that strange feeling he had felt. It had felt familiar, but foreign, like a memory of something once commonplace. It had definitely been triggered by something, but there had been nothing there, Keith had been alone and under no threat on that cruiser. At least, not one that he could think of.

Could this be connected to the druids somehow? Where they experimenting with telepathy now? It would make sense – implanting thoughts into the minds of enemies would be very useful.

But whatever it was hadn’t felt hostile. If anything it had felt familiar. It has reminded him of—

Keith bolted upright in his seat. He knew why that feeling had felt so familiar. It was Red. He had no idea how he could have missed it. Whatever that feeling was, it had come across the bond he had thought was dormant, destroyed. He was apparently mistaken.

Keith had been with the blade a long time. Before that he had bonded with the black lion. He had figured that his connection to Red would have been all but destroyed. But what he had felt had been so _strong—_ strong enough to stop him in his tracks. Whatever had happened, it could not have been good.

Keith could feel the panic starting to swell inside him. He thought of each of his former teammates in turn – which one had been in danger? Which one had been hurt? What had happened when he hadn’t been there to watch their backs? Once again a feeling of dread settled over him, but this one he knew was completely his own.

 

* * *

 

It wasn’t long before Keith reached the Blade headquarters. He pulled into the hangar with trepidation. If something had gone wrong – or at least as wrong as Keith thought it had – the Kolivan would know. The team would have contacted him and the older blade was surely waiting for Keith with the news. As he climbed out of his pod, he forced himself to walk naturally. He was torn between wanting to run, to find out as soon as possible, and to simply not go at all to avoid the inevitable terrible news. Thus, walking normally.

He reached the bridge more quickly than he intended regardless, and paused before the door. This was the last moment of hesitation – after this there would be no going back.

Keith squared his shoulders and cursed to himself. Since when was he so melodramatic? Lance must be rubbing off. With that he opened the door and strode onto the bridge.

Kolivan was off to the side, conferring with another Blade over a holoscreen. When he saw Keith however, he ended his conversation and crossed the bridge towards him.

“Keith, mission report.”

Kolivan: always direct.

“The mission was a success, no complications.”

“Excellent, those weapons will make quite the difference to the rebel fighters. You did well.”

Keith nodded his thanks. If there had been bad news from Voltron, Kolivan would have shared it by now. But still…

“Has there been any new intel in? Is there somewhere else you need me now?”

Kolivan shook his head, “no actionable intel at the moment. Actually, it seems like it’s going to be a slow few days. Most of the galra fleets are scattered, and all of the nearby rebel forces are docked to resupply.”

Keith tried not to stare at the senior blade. If Kolivan did have news, he certainly would have shared it before discussing the rebel’s supply stop. No news should be good news, but Keith just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was _wrong_. The fear that he had felt from Red just wouldn’t leave and Keith knew he wouldn’t be able to settle until he knew for sure.

But while Kolivan was generally understanding, there was no way he was going to let Keith travel halfway across the universe to chase a strange feeling. If he wanted to go check on the team, he would need a reasonable excuse.

“If we have a few days, maybe now is a good time for a fact finding mission. Voltron has been directly involved with Lotor’s rise to power, their intel would be invaluable. I could take a pod, meet up with them and exchange intel. It would only take a few days, at most.”

Kolivan gave him a look that made it clear Keith’s ruse wasn’t fooling him, but at the same time his point was valid and the older blade knew it. After a few more ticks of silent deliberation, Kolivan sighed, “You have 4 days. I expect that you check in when you arrive and before you leave.”

“Of course,” Keith said quickly, unwilling to push his luck any further.

Kolivan looked him over once more and then shook his head, “Well,” he stated dryly, “what are you waiting for?”

Keith didn’t need to be told twice.

 

* * *

 

 

After using his communicator to determine the castle’s coordinates, Keith set a course in his pod and settled in for a long ride. The castle’s current location was almost an entire day’s trip away, but hopefully once he got there Allura would be able to wormhole him back so he wouldn’t have to leave quite as quickly.

He knew he should sleep and he certainly had the time. But every time he closed his eyes, he was assaulted by images of his friends under attack, of their possible injuries, or them getting lured into a trap. In each one Team Voltron lost, and Keith wasn’t there to do anything about it.

Eventually he fell into a restless sleep. But the nagging fear followed him and blood-covered paladins, backed up against a wall surrounded by sentries, haunted his dreams. Each iteration was different than the last, but none were any less terrifying than the others.

He slept fitfully, waking periodically to check his course. But as much as he may have wished otherwise his pod maintained a steady pace towards the castle. He listlessly scrolled through the data from the pod’s servers with the intention of compiling a report for Shiro and the rest of the team.

But he couldn’t seem to stay focused.

Normally Keith had no problem with a long solo flight. Sometimes he even craved them. Growing up as he had, Keith had learned to find comfort in solitude. His thoughts were not something that scared him. Or at least, they hadn’t been. Now, with all the terrible possibilities rushing through his head, Keith was anxious for the ride – and the uncertainty – to end.

Finally, he saw the tell tale glow of the Castle of Lions ahead of him. A smile spread across his face. Regardless of the dubious circumstances of his visit, the sight of the castleship was always a comfort to him. In many ways it was the closest thing to a home he had ever had. It certainly housed the closest thing he had ever had to a family.

And there was the fear again. It was never far.

In a few more minutes he would know the truth. Whether that was good or bad Keith didn’t know.

As he drifted within the range of the castle defenses and entered the code to allow access to the hangar his stomach churned. This was it – the moment of truth. The feeling of foreboding that had been hovering nearby since the mission was closer now, threatening to overwhelm him. He took a deep breath and shoved it aside resolutely. There was no time for doubts. He was here now and he was going to get answers.

He just hoped that he liked what he found.

 

* * *

 

 

Once he had docked his pod (and sent Kolivan a message that he had in fact made it in one piece and had not been ambushed by space pirates or something similar), Keith stepped out of the hangar into the bowels of the castle. Though he was still tense, the familiar soft blue light calmed him a little bit. It was a reminder that this place had once been home.

Keith took a steadying breath as he headed though the weaving tunnels of the hangar level. He would head to the bridge first, he decided. He would likely run into someone there, but if not he could check the camera’s from there. He felt a little uncomfortable at the thought of spying on his friends in their own ship, but he was more anxious to find someone and get answers. He’d deal with his guilty conscious later.

With a plan in mind he set of towards the bridge with quick, decisive steps. The bridge had the added bonus of being close to the hangars and his heart rate quickened as he walked. It may only be a matter of minutes before he finally had the answers that he had been craving for an entire day.

He was so focused on his destination and the possibility of finally getting some closure that the sudden clanging from the doorway to his right nearly made his heart jump into his throat. He had his hand on his knife before he could even fully process what had happened. He looked frantically around, prepared to tackle whatever the treat might be before a soft curse in a familiar voice floated from the doorway.

Keith heaved in a shaky breath and released his knife. If he hadn’t been so focused, he would have realized sooner that the doorway in question led to Red’s hangar where Hunk was clearly in the middle of something. Keith paused for a few moments, taking the time to regulate his breathing. Once his it had returned to normal he strode through the familiar entrance.

A smile spread across his face as he saw Hunk’s legs poking out from underneath the belly of the Red lion. It was such a wonderfully familiar sight that it almost hurt; Hunk in the hangar, tinkering on one of the lions, humming loudly (and off key) to himself. Keith had a strange feeling of timelessness, as if this moment could have just as easily have been two years or a month ago as today.

He strode forward, the echo of his footsteps against the hard surfaces drowned out by the sound of Hunk’s enthusiastically awful humming. He waited until he was at the other boy’s feet before he spoke;

“She due for a tune up?”

The next moment was a blur of many things: the clatter of tools dropping to the floor, the echoing bang as Hunk’s head hit Red’s underbelly, the curse that he gasped out. Keith grimaced in sympathy as the other boy slid out from underneath the lion.

“Keith!” he said reproachfully, rubbing his head. A tick later his eyes widened as the sight of the boy standing in front of him registered. “Keith!” he cried in surprise, springing up and catching Keith in a hug.

Keith stumbled back from the momentum and chuckled as he returned the embrace.

“Sorry big guy, it was too good to pass up.”

Hunk let go of him with a good-natured chuckle and stepped to get a better look at him.

“You know,” said as he examined Keith for missing limbs or other similar traumatic injuries, “I sometimes miss the days of aloof Keith. Aloof Keith wouldn’t have done that.” Keith rolled his eyes at the teasing and Hunk, apparently satisfied with the outcome of his visual assessment, moved back over towards his toolbox.

“Not that I’m not happy to see you and all, but why are you here? I figured you would have super secret blade missions to do and ships to break into and puppies to save or whatever it is that space heroes do.”

Keith didn’t even bother to hide his eye roll at that, “Hunk, you’re a “space hero” too.”

“Yeah, but not the super secret kind. You’re like Spiderman, or Batman, or someone in a disguise who helps people.”

Keith shook his head, but couldn’t help but smile. He had missed this more than he had realized. “We’re more like spies anyways,” he replied reasonably.

Hunk considered this and nodded, “Fair enough. Doesn’t change the question though. Is there some sort of big battle coming up we should know about or something?”

“No, it’s actually all pretty quiet right now. Which is actually why I’m here,” Keith said in what he hoped was a normal voice, “ Kolivan thought that this would be a good opportunity for Voltron and the Blades to compare intel. To make sure we have the whole picture down before something else happens and we can react to it.”

Yeah, that sounded reasonable.

Hunk nodded thoughtfully, “Smart move I guess, but I’m hoping that Lotor taking over will give us some well deserved peace and quiet and R&R time personally.”

Keith forced a chuckle, “I don’t know about that, but if it makes you feel any better, I feel the same way.”

Hunk hummed his agreement and continued to rifle through his toolbox. After several moments of silence he spoke again, “hey man, can you see if you can find my spanner wrench? I thought I had it over here but I’m not seeing it. It might be on the floor over there, you know, from when you scared he half to death about 3 minutes ago?”

Keith decided to ignore that particular pointed jab and headed over to the pile of tools scattered on the hangar floor. He located the wrench in question in a matter of moments and handed off to Hunk who took it with a nod of thanks and disappeared under the Red’s belly once more. Keith gathered up the rest of the scattered tools and brought them over to the toolbox. He has spent a fair amount of time with Hunk in his workspace before he left for the Blades. He had found it soothing, working with the other boy in companionable silence with the occasional light chatter sprinkled in. Occasionally he had even offered an extra set of hands, and while he might not know how to repair anything beyond a light bulb, he did know what went where in Hunk’s toolbox.

They settled into their familiar routine, both silently working at their tasks for several minutes before Hunk broke the silence.

“Are you going to tell me what’s really going on?”

Keith looked up from the toolbox towards the other boy in surprise, “What do you mean?” he asked in what he hoped was a completely casual tone.

It was not.

“I mean,” Hunk continued, his voice reverberating from underneath Red’s belly, “that you wouldn’t have come here unannounced and still in you mission suit in a pod with barely enough fuel to make the trip without a pretty solid reason. And that intel sharing you mentioned is not sounding quite rock solid to me. Not to mention that you’ve been almost jumpy ever since you got here.”

Keith had nothing to say to that. He sometimes forgot that while Hunk had all the science skills that Pidge did, he was also almost as good at reading people as Lance was. Here had come Keith, an open book. He wasn’t surprised though. While he usually prided himself on his composure, ever since that moment on the galra ship he had felt…off balance. Not quite able to find his footing. He sorted through the toolbox for another few moments, trying to find away to put his thoughts into words.

“When I was on my last mission, I had a weird feeling. Everything was going fine, and then suddenly there was this overwhelming sense of – I don’t even really know, fear or panic I guess – that just rushed over me. It was so strong that it almost knocked me over. But there was nothing around me, no reason at all for that feeling. It wasn’t until I wrapped up my mission and was in my pod heading back to headquarters that I realized that it hadn’t been my instincts or feelings at all – it was Red. Somehow – somehow, whatever she was feeling had transferred over our bond, which I didn’t even think was possible since I wasn’t her paladin or even part of Voltron anymore. But whatever had happened, I figured it had to be bad. When I got back to the base, I was expecting Kolivan to have news, bad news for me. And even though he didn’t, I just couldn’t shake the feeling. I knew I wouldn’t be able to, so I decided to come check it out for myself.”

Keith trailed off after that, awaiting Hunks verdict. Waited for the other boy to call him crazy – he would be well within his rights to do so. Instead, Hunk slide out from underneath the Red lion’s hull and sat up to look at Keith, “When, exactly, did you have this feeling?” he asked.

Keith was taken aback by the serious expression on Hunk’s face. He had felt comfortable telling Hunk about this because he trusted the other boy to not make fun of him for it, but he also hadn’t expected for him to take it so seriously.

“About two days ago now,” Keith answered, not taking his eyes off of Hunk’s face. As he watched, Hunk’s face switched from wary to understanding. But judging by the hard set of his mouth, the other boy’s suspicions had been confirmed, and he didn’t like it.

After another few moments of silence, Hunk spoke. He spoke carefully, making an effort to weigh each word before speaking, “Two days ago, during a mission, there was an…incident.”

Keith sucked in a breath. He _knew_ it. He knew that something had happened. He stomach sank and his dread grew. Judging by Hunk’s expression, he was not going to like this.

Hunk continued speaking, his eyes on the wrench in his hands, “Sendak attacked a galran base that had pledged loyalty to Lotor. Instead of fighting us when we arrived, he decided to use the ion canon to attack the shields that protected the base and the planet from the radiation belt surrounding it. Obviously, we had to fix it. We were on a tight time table, but everything was going fine, until something went wrong with the generator Pidge and Shiro were trying to reboot.”

Keith could feel panic rising up in his throat. _Had something happened to Shiro? Or Pidge?_ He took a steadying breath and made an effort to focus on Hunk’s words.

“The generator must have overloaded or something, I’m not sure on the specifics, but it caused a short in the plate that Lance and Allura were repairing. They had welded it back together with their combined ice and heat rays, and the charge gathered on one of the welding locations, right underneath Allura.”

_Was it Allura then?_

Hunk was still talking and Keith pushed the other thoughts out of his head. He needed to know for sure.

“But before anything could happen, Lance noticed the problem and – and he pushed Allura and Blue out of the way. He and Red got caught in the electrical explosion. It—it was a big one.”

Keith was an idiot. _Lance_. Why hadn’t he realized it before? Of course it was Lance. Why else would he have felt it from several quadrants away? It could have only been Red’s pilot that could have caused that reaction.

Keith eyed Hunk warily, silently pleading for the other boy to continue. He _needed_ to know. He needed to know what his team had suffered through while Keith hadn’t been there – what his friend had gone through.

The silence only stretched for a few more moments before it was too much for Keith. Awful possibilities were swirling through his head; worst case scenarios.

“Hunk,” he said abruptly, “what happened to Lance?”

Hunk looked as if he was weighing his words. He seemed to be considering all the possible ways to say whatever it is he needed to say, but not sure how to best go about it.

It wasn’t helping to ease Keith’s panic at all.

Finally, Hunk spoke. With a grimace, he looked at Keith and spoke two words; “he died.”

Keith was sure he hadn’t heard right. There was no way that he had heard Hunk correctly, because it had sounded like the other boy had said that Lance had died. But the more he thought about it, the more he was certain that he had in fact heard correctly.

“He…?” Keith asked hesitantly, his last ditch effort to pretend that maybe this was all a miscommunication.

But even as he waited for Hunks response, he knew that he had heard right. It made sense. The feeling he had gotten from Red – the fear, the panic, the pain – _oh God, Lance had been in so much pain—_

“Lance was killed in the explosion. I—I was running the mission, so I couldn’t go check on him right away, so all I knew is that his comms were down, but Allura got to him right away and was able to use some sort of space magic to bring him back. So, he’s fine. I mean, he was still hit with several thousand volts of electricity, so he was hurt, but he went in a pod and got some sleep and he seems fine. He’s alive and I’m thrilled about that, obviously…”

Hunk continued rambling, but Keith had stopped listening a few words in. Lance had _died_. Keith had left, run off to join the blade, and had left his team when they had needed him. They had to face Lance’s death without him, they had lost a member of their team and he hadn’t been there to support them. He—he had never had a chance to say goodbye to Lance.

He frantically sorted through his memories, racking his brain to try and remember the last conversation he had had with Lance. It was probably one of the calls he would make back to the castle from time to time, just to check in. What had they talked about? Had it ended with Keith having to hang up to attend to a mission or other blade responsibility? That had happened more than once.

It had been even longer since he had seen Lance, or any of the paladins for that matter. He had seen them from a distance during the Kral Zera, but how long had it actually been since he had been in the same room as Lance? He honestly couldn’t remember. He had been so focused on the Blade, so focused on his missions that he hadn’t even bothered to check in with the team. What kind of friend was he that he couldn’t even remember the last time conversation that he and Lance had had, or the last time he had actually seen the Cuban boy.

What was worse was that it was _Lance_. Lance who had once annoyed Keith to no end, but who had been the first to step up and support him as the team leader.

Who had sacrificed his lion to be Keith’s right-hand man.

Who had been there for him as a lieutenant and a friend as Keith learned how to become a leader.

Who wasn’t afraid to tell Keith when he was wrong, but always helped him figure out the right way.

Keith had known for a long time that Lance was the glue that held team Voltron together. He was always looking out for the others, always knew what to say to help them out, and was always able to break the tension. He just hadn’t realized how much he personally had come to rely on Lance.

Keith did have the greatest track record with the people he cared about sticking around. He knew that. First his parents, the foster families that kept switching, and then Shiro – first with Kerberos, and then those long weeks after the fight with Zarkon.

But as long as he had known Lance, Keith had been able to count on him. Even when they weren’t getting along, he always knew he could count on Lance to have his back. The others had a tendency to get stuck in their own little worlds and maybe not notice that something was wrong, but Lance never did.

Keith had never really fully appreciated how much he had come to count on Lance, especially since the lion switch. Keith finally had one constant, one person in the universe he knew he could count on no matter what, and just like that he was gone. And Keith hadn’t even known.

He could hear Hunk’s voice in the distance. He was repeating something Keith couldn’t quite make out. He heard the other boy’s voice getting louder, but he was too busy wondering what Lance must have felt in his last moments to try and pay attention. Hunk had said thousands of volts of electricity. Keith had felt just a remnant of that through the bond and it had almost knocked him off his feet. What had Lance felt in that moment? Did he feel his insides turning to ash? Did he feel his heart stuttering to a stop? Had it been like lightning bolts in his veins? Why hadn’t he been there to stop it?

There were footsteps now, but all Keith could see was the image of Lance slumped over in the pilot’s seat, Red’s cockpit dim as the lion floated listlessly through the debris around it. The silence was deafening. There was not a beep, not a breath to be heard anywhere. Faint sparks still flew through the cockpit, quietly without any real malice. There was no need for it anymore.

And Lance – Lance was so still. Keith had never seen the Cuban boy so still. Only death could have accomplished that. His clear blue eyes were shut, his mouth still set in a loose grimace of pain. These were the last moments of the red paladin, the one person in life Keith knew he could count on.

But he was gone; death had come for him too.

Vaguely Keith became aware of a hand on his arm. It was accompanied by a voice that sounded wonderfully familiar, but so foreign. A voice Keith would never hear again…

“Keith, buddy, you need to answer me. You’re starting to scare Hunk.”

The words gradually filtered through the horror show in front of Keith’s eyes. The voice, the hand, the words slowly materialized, and Keith tried to ignore them. No, it was a cruel trick of his mind. Lance wasn’t speaking to him; Lance was dead. Hunk had told him that Lance had died on a mission. He had died in an explosion. His last minutes played out before Keith’s eyes again. Keith couldn’t make himself stop watching.

“Keith!”

There was that voice saying his name again. The hand on his arm tightened, the fingers digging into his arm. He was dimly aware of another hand on his back, rubbing what seemed to be soothing circles.

“Keith, look at me!” The hand had starting shaking his arm and the voice now held a different quality. It now sounded both of authority and desperation. Keith blinked and looked towards it.

Blue eyes met his own. A frown covered a tanned face. A long arm extended from the hand tightly gripping his arm. _Lance_.

“Lance?” Keith finally asked hesitantly.

Lance breathed a sigh of relief, his shoulders loosing some of their tension, “yeah buddy, it’s me. Are you okay? You were kind of out of it for a moment. I was just walking by when I heard Hunk yelling your name. What happened?”

When Keith didn’t answer, Lance frowned. He was about to press more when Keith, launching from his spot on the floor and throwing his arms around Lance, cut him off. The taller boy stumbled, nearly falling backwards before Hunk reached out and steadied them both. Lance shot Hunk a grateful look over Keith’s shoulder, but quickly turned his attention back to the boy currently clinging onto Lance for dear life.

“Keith?” he asked with trepidation, “are you okay?”

The only response Lance got was the arms around him tightening even more. It was starting to get a little hard to breath. Lance slowly put his arms around the other boy, gently hugging him back. Usually he wouldn’t dream about even attempting this level of physical contact with Keith, but clearly something was different about this moment.

After another few moments, he tried again, “Keith, talk to me please. Tell me what’s wrong. You’re really freaking us out here.”

“Lance, you’re—you’re okay.”

Lance looked over at Hunk again, his curiosity turning to suspicion as Hunk winced in guilt.

“Of course I am,” he said evenly, “why wouldn’t I be?”

“Hunk—Hunk told me you died. During a mission.”

Oh.

Keith continued, his voice wavering in a way that was so uncharacteristic of the boy currently clinging to Lance like a lifeline, “and I wasn’t there for you or the team, I wasn’t there to protect you, and I couldn’t remember the last thing I had said to you, or the last time I had seen you, or…”

Lance couldn’t take it anymore. “Keith,” he said firmly, “I’m fine. I’m not dead. You don’t have to worry about any of that. I’m here. We’re both here, and we’re both fine. Everything is going to be okay. I promise.”

His words must have had the desired affect as Keith’s breathing miraculously returned to normal and he slowly began to loosen his grip on Lance. Slowly, he shifted away from the taller boy and resumed a much more normal Keith stance. Lance finally released the breath he hadn’t even realized he had been holding.

Keith stepped away from Lance but couldn’t bring himself to take his eyes off of him. He was not entirely unconvinced that this wasn’t a dream. He reminded himself that he had felt Lance’s solid form in his arms, he had felt the other boys heart thudding in his chest, had felt the air leaving his lungs and brushing Keith’s hair as he had clung to the other boy. He had all of the evidence, and yet he still couldn’t quite bring himself to believe it. Lance wasn’t dead and it seemed too good to be true.

Keith took a smaller step forward so that he was close enough to touch Lance and hesitantly reached out his arm. He gently placed it on the other boy’s shoulder, slowly releasing a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding when his hand met muscle and bone and _Lance_.

He looked up into the clear—worried, concerned, confused—blue eyes and held their gaze. After a silent moment, he spoke. He was only mildly surprised to find his voice strained as it came out; “You’re okay?”

Lance held his gaze and placed his hand on top of Keith’s, “I am, I promise.” He followed his words with a gentle squeeze of their joined hands.

Keith let out a final, shaky breath. Lance was fine, he was okay, he was _alive_.

Lance didn’t release his hand or his gaze though. “Are you?” he asked instead.

Keith, feeling as if a weight had been lifted from his soul allowed a smile to spread across his face.

“I am now,” he replied with certainty.

Lance was fine, he was okay, he was alive, and Keith intended to keep it that way.

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm still terrible at finishing things I've started, but I'm getting better. 
> 
> I still have two WIPs I want to finish before season 8, but I've a month. It'll be totally fine, I swear. 
> 
> After I wrote the last one I thought about this idea because it had felt so weird to not write Keith in the first installment. Apparently some people agreed and mentioned that in the comments, so here we are. 
> 
> Let me know what you thought!


End file.
